gladius hispaniensis

[Ironhand]

You could always get some pre-ban ivory which is legal. Mammoth ivory is also legal.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

You could always get some pre-ban ivory which is legal. Mammoth ivory is also legal.

Now that totaly blows my mind......the bit about mammoth ivory! hock:

[Titus Aetius]

the bit about mammoth ivory! hock:

It's very beautiful, and it's often used by knifemakers as a handle-material. A knife made of wootz with a mammoth ivory handle = heaven.

Edit: very nice sword, PierePaolo, especially because you've made it yourself; that's the beauty of it.

[caiusbeerquitius]

For more about Ivory look here:
www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=5756&highlight=ring+buckle+3rd

[Marcus Mummius]

the bit about mammoth ivory! hock:

It's very beautiful, and it's often used by knifemakers as a handle-material. A knife made of wootz with a mammoth ivory handle = heaven.

Edit: very nice sword, PierePaolo, especially because you've made it yourself; that's the beauty of it.

I personaly like mammoth ivory or bone in modern artefacts. The material is very deteriorated and to be usable for a knife handle for example they completely impregnate it with epoxy resin. This results in the bone/ivory being strong and shiny, but in my opinion this isn't bone anymore. It's more like plastic with some mammoth dust in it... Very fake and synthetic. It may appeal to some, but not to me :wink: I certainly wouldn't use the impregnated stuff for a Roman replica, if you have any wish for it to be authentic. The untreated mammoth bone and ivory will not be strong enough to use. The ivory will delaminate and such and the bone will crumble to dust...

Vale,
Jef

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

the bit about mammoth ivory! hock:

It's very beautiful, and it's often used by knifemakers as a handle-material. A knife made of wootz with a mammoth ivory handle = heaven.

.

I'm sure it is, but then so is ivory from present day elephants!
Just surprises me that it would be used in that fashion rather than on display in a museum! I'll have to settle for the substitutes I think! 8)

[Hugh Fuller]

For anyone who would like to see an excellent example of a folder with Mammoth Ivory scales and a pattern-welded blade, Michael "Tinker" Pearce put one up on his forum just because he admired it so. He did not make it nor was he selling it.
http://tinkerswords.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

It is pretty nice :roll:

[Titus Aetius]

That is one nice folder!

When I first heard about it, I had the same reaction as you Byron! I also thought of tusks/teeth in a museum...

But indeed Jef, I would not recommend to use it for any Roman replica. Besides the fact that it's so porous, I don't think the Romans ever found a mammoth...

[Marcus Mummius]

That is one nice folder!

When I first heard about it, I had the same reaction as you Byron! I also thought of tusks/teeth in a museum...

But indeed Jef, I would not recommend to use it for any Roman replica. Besides the fact that it's so porous, I don't think the Romans ever found a mammoth...

Well, there is quite a lot of mammoth bone in circulation. It's not very rare. The pieces I've handled in museums (whole tusks, lots of skeletons) were heavily deteriorating and crumbling to bits and pieces. You can often buy pieces for low prices...

Vale,
Jef

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I can honestly say I have never seen any myself, but it is a bit isolated here beyond the frontier! :lol:

[Hugh Fuller]

That is one nice folder!

When I first heard about it, I had the same reaction as you Byron! I also thought of tusks/teeth in a museum...

But indeed Jef, I would not recommend to use it for any Roman replica. Besides the fact that it's so porous, I don't think the Romans ever found a mammoth...

Titus, I would not be so quick to make so broad a statement as that. May I recommend to you Adrienne Mayor's quite excellent and very readable book,The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times? She discusses how the ancients found mammoth or mastodon bones in and around the Mediterranean basin and mistook the huge nasal cavity for the single central eye socket of the Cyclops and how they dug up or fund the bones of other extinct species weathered out of the rocks and interpreted them as the bones of their ancient heroes such as Achilles and Hercules. She also connects the bones of the Protoceratops found weathered out of the mountains of the Altai Range in Central Asia and washed down stream beds with placer gold to be found by the Scythians and carried west to the Greeks, creating the myth of the Griffin, the beast with the head of an eagle, the heavy body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and claws that guarded gold deposits. Here is the Amazon page for it: [url:2iz509l0]http://www.amazon.com/First-Fossil-Hunters-Paleontology-Times/dp/0691089779/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201901252&sr=1-1[/url]

[Titus Aetius]

That is one nice folder!

When I first heard about it, I had the same reaction as you Byron! I also thought of tusks/teeth in a museum...

But indeed Jef, I would not recommend to use it for any Roman replica. Besides the fact that it's so porous, I don't think the Romans ever found a mammoth...

Titus, I would not be so quick to make so broad a statement as that. May I recommend to you Adrienne Mayor's quite excellent and very readable book,The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times? She discusses how the ancients found mammoth or mastodon bones in and around the Mediterranean basin and mistook the huge nasal cavity for the single central eye socket of the Cyclops and how they dug up or fund the bones of other extinct species weathered out of the rocks and interpreted them as the bones of their ancient heroes such as Achilles and Hercules. She also connects the bones of the Protoceratops found weathered out of the mountains of the Altai Range in Central Asia and washed down stream beds with placer gold to be found by the Scythians and carried west to the Greeks, creating the myth of the Griffin, the beast with the head of an eagle, the heavy body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and claws that guarded gold deposits. Here is the Amazon page for it: [url:nkn78ydw]http://www.amazon.com/First-Fossil-Hunters-Paleontology-Times/dp/0691089779/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201901252&sr=1-1[/url]

Excuse me, you're right! I had to be more precise... what I actually meant was that they (imho) did not use it to make swordhandles out of it or things like that. I did not read the book, but I read somewhere else that indeed the Greeks and Romans did paleontological founds and that they assumed it were bones of their heroes; just like you say. However, the part about the Griffin was unknown to me.
Thank you to point to my mistake!

Edit: in fact, I meant that they - if they found mammothbones for example - did not see them as mammothbones, because they simply didn't know species like that existed. Ah, it seems that my previous post was quite some piece of rubbish if we're talking of a clear post... :roll: My fault!

[munazio planco]

avete Omnes
is possible to have in italy too mammooth ivory...but is orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible expansive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

vaklete Omnes